Warm Oblivion
by Francesca Octavia Isherwood
Summary: Chapter one: A day out with a friend ends horribly for Elizabeth.


Title: Warm Oblivion  
  
Author: Francesca Octavia Isherwood  
  
Rating: PG, so far.  
  
Disclaimer: Actually, I own everything in this chapter... But, I won't own everything in future chapters.  
  
Author's Notes: (for this chapter) Okay, so this is a bit... Eventful? I don't know. I like it. It will eventually be HP. It's set in the present, but Ryerwood is a bit old-fashioned. Yea, I own Ryerwood too. ^-^  
  
Summary: (for this chapter) A day out with a friend ends horribly for Elizabeth.  
  
This is the story of Elizabeth Carmen Cherise Martin, or Elizabeth Matain, as she used to call herself. It opens on a summer day, in a field, with Elizabeth sitting in the middle with her friend Katherine LaTavia Frank (Kitty), watching the sun sink down beneath the trees. And, as you know, setting the opening scene is essential in a story, so what decent writer could leave it out? Not me, certainly not.  
  
Elizabeth's dress fanned out across her legs, hiding her stocking-clad feet beneath waterfalls of pale blue material and white frills. She pulled one of her sleeves back down to her wrist, as it had been riding up - the dress now being far too small for her save for the skirt part, which had been altered - and sighed, casting an eye over her surroundings. The long, silvery grass was waving about lazily in what little breeze was flowing over her and her companions, and the leaves on the trees bordering and dotting the field rustled. A flock of some sort of greyish bird fluttered overhead, obviously heading somewhere, but with it being the tail end of summer, Elizabeth couldn't think where they were going. The sky was a multitude of colours, the topmost being a dark blue, fading into light blue, then to green, orange, and yellow, where the sun had almost disappeared from sight.  
  
Once the sky was dark, and the two girls were swamped by the great shadow now consuming their half of the world, Kitty stood and wiped non-existant mud from the seat of her dress. Of course, Kitty's dresses were never too small; they were perfectly made, and reached where they were meant to reach instead of falling three or four inches short. Of course, with Kitty being such a 'girl', all her dresses - bar one, which was black and used for funerals, and a royal blue one which was her Sunday best - were pink. Any shade, except 'that horrid shade people call anbaric, or some such thing'. Pale pinks and rich pinks that were almost burgundy and bright pinks that were almost red.  
  
"Well, we should be going, Elizabeth." Kitty purred. There was no other word for how she spoke, it was like a cat when given a saucer of milk in front of the fire and stroked for hours on end. Which was really rather funny, given her name - or rather her nickname. Elizabeth stood too, and attempted to pull her sleeves down to her wrists again, without success. With a sharp nod which sent her black - not ebony, not raven, just black - curls over her head and back again, the two walked toward one end of the field, where there was a gate standing open to let them back out. They'd gotten to Kitty's house in the dark with minimal damage; Elizabeth had tripped on a stone and ripped her left stocking, and Kitty had taken her shoes and socks off halfway, only to step in something nasty, resulting in a time-consuming wash at the nearby stream. Kitty was just glad she hadn't ruined her shoes. The pair were indulging in a fit of giggles at some very pleasing imagery Kitty had evoked by something she'd said as they teetered up the steps to Kitty's front door, Elizabeth clutching the folded-up bundle that was her stockings and Kitty clasping her shoes and socks to her chest.  
  
Quite suddenly, Elizabeth stumbled, and leant on her friend for support. This caused more damage as Kitty then lost her balance and the pair of girls fell screaming down a total of sixty-four steps, landing in an unconscious, bleeding heap at the bottom. Mrs Melora Frank burst out of the door after a minute or two, alarmed at the screaming of what sounded like her daughter and somebody else, and raced down the steps. It would be considered unladylike to race down steps, but in this situation, Mrs Frank threw all thoughts of daintiness that would have pestered her all day to the winds and threw herself, screaming and sobbing, over the two frail, broken bodies. After a while, a crowd gathered around her, staring at her and seemingly not hearing her cries for help. She got up and flew at one man, pinning him down and screaming at him to take the girls to the nearest doctor. While she was founding at the man with fists that were so used to being ladylike they did little to no harm, two other men lifted the girls and took them over to the doctor's.  
  
Elizabeth woke abruptly some days later. She couldn't remember much of what had happened, just one moment she was giggling, the next she was screaming, there was lots of pain and then a great big gap. There was a great pang of pain in her leg that wouldn't go away, and once she got used to the light in the room, her head began to throb too. There was a man and a woman talking in hushed voices nearby, who didn't look as if they'd noticed she was awake. She tried to speak, to say something, to ask about Kitty, but all that came out was a croak which irritated her throat, sore from the fits of screaming she'd been having in her sleep lately. The two people whipped around and hurried over to her bed, talking all at once. They stopped abruptly when she winced. She wasn't used to noise, and it was hurting her ears. And then the woman began to speak.  
  
"Elizabeth - Lizzie - You're awake..." The woman muttered, looking as if she were about to cry. Elizabeth couldn't see why, after all, she didn't know this woman.  
  
"How - do - you - know..." Elizabeth whispered, every syllable hurting her so that she had to stop inbetween. "...My - name?" The woman recoiled as if she'd been slapped in the face. Elizabeth wasn't looking at the man, but if she had been, she would have seen him looking very surprised.  
  
"But, Lizzie dear... Surely you remember me?" Elizabeth shook her head and the woman retreated, sinking down into a chair on the other side of the room. She turned her blue eyes - normally so clear, but now they looked blurred - toward the man and uttered one word.  
  
"K - Kitty..." The man's face fell. He stayed silent for a second, before taking a breath as if he were going to say something, losing his nerve and starting again.  
  
"Your friend... When you were falling-" Falling? Elizabeth didn't remember falling, just her, her friend, and lots of pain. "-she banged her head on some of the steps. So did you, but her head injuries were worse. She... She died last night." Elizabeth closed her eyes, letting tears run freely from the corners of them, and sank back into warm oblivion. 


End file.
